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‘Green’ lumber claims must stack up

February 21, 2014

by

Bridget Small

Consumer Education Specialist, FTC

When spring finally comes, you may want to spruce up your outdoor space with new furniture, fences or even a deck. And chances are you’ll rely on advertising for solid information about the products you’re going to buy.

The Federal Trade Commission recently settled allegations that N.E.W. Plastics Corp. made deceptive environmental benefit claims for its plastic lumber products. According to the FTC, N.E.W. Plastics exaggerated how much recycled plastic it used in some products, and falsely claimed all its products could be recycled. The proposed settlement prohibits the company from making deceptive green claims for any product or package, and requires it to tell distributors to stop using allegedly deceptive promotional materials that had already been distributed.

By the way, when a company uses the terms recycled and recyclable in an ad, here’s what those terms mean: A recycled product is made from content that was kept out of, recovered from, or separated from the trash, either during the manufacturing process or after people have used it. A product that’s recyclable can be separated from the trash through a recycling program and be used again or made into a new product. But even if a product is recyclable, not every community recycles it.

A company must be able to substantiate its claims. Else, it may be facing the FTC.

Comments

Patio update time. When I went looking for info on the "(Its not wood") products I went to a large building material handling store: 1st reason; I know the company is repitable because it is a long time customer of a warehouse products company I retired from. 2nd reason; it is locally owned & operated. 3rd reason; I handled most of their product purchasing. He told me several things about this "product". He explained the recycle info you covered-it does need up keep-they have the best guarantee-they had the right stuff. I then shopped another "nation-wide"store. Most of their comments were opposite of what I learned from my 1st choice & your words. The recycle questions I asked stumped the 2 men I visited with. Guess who wins my vote?

The article is totally false! Why would any reasonable person trust 'any' federal agency in this current corrupt environment. The government keeps pushing "GREEN, GREEN, GREEN"......and then when private companies make the investment and use recycled materials.....THEY ATTACK! This current administration and its phony, self serving policies are all done to make Obama and his corrupt friends rich. Mr Green himself, Big Al Gore, walked away from Washington a multi-millionaire with his fake claims about the environment. Its the typical 'scare the hell out of the public' tactic with the LYING left. The American people have this all figured out these days and this November starts the massive landslide as the democrats get the stuffing kicked out of them nationwide and only then can the economy return to a survivable state. This BIG federal government and its complete nonsense MUST STOP!

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